Viber 2.3 For BlackBerry Launches With Emoticons, Revamped UI, And Promises Of VoIP Calling By April

Jordan Crook

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. Hello → Learn More

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

Viber has just announced a relatively vanilla update to its BlackBerry app, but with a pretty awesome cherry on top.

With over 150 million registered users (since we last checked), Viber has managed to offer HD VoIP calls, texts, and MMS messages for free across both Android and iOS, regardless of location.

But BlackBerry has proven difficult. In fact, Viber claims that no third-party app has ever provided VoIP calling on RIM’s platform. But the company plans to bring it to BlackBerry’s World in April, and wants to prove it with this video preview.

Until then, however, BlackBerry users must be satisfied with the Viber 2.3 update, which revamps the UI quite a bit and adds stickers and emoticons.

If you’ll recall, Viber updated its iOS and Android apps to v2.3 all the way back in July. But to be fair, iOS and Android comprise a larger user base than BlackBerry.

Version 2.3 adds support for new languages including Arabic and Spanish, and improved UI and scrolling for messages. Plus, Viber also brought along support for group convos with up to 40 participants.

BlackBerry users should be glad to have partially caught up with Viber’s iOS and Android experiences, but the journey is not yet complete until April, with the promised arrival of VoIP calling.


Company: Viber
Website: viber.com
Launch Date: December 2, 2010

Viber is an application for iPhone® and Android™ phones that lets you make free phone calls and send text messages to anyone who also has the application installed.

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